Asphodel – The Sixth Age – Third Year – Fifteenth Sun

Cracking bones echoed off the cement walls around Mary. The spine-tingling noises continued as she pivoted around, he heels digging into the floor. The exit was fifteen feet away. Feverishly running numbers, she tried to calculate the chances of getting out of the room alive. It didn’t look good. With the little control that Shifters over their early creature form, Mary knew the relationship she had built with Adam in the two weeks meant little.

The steel door came fast and hard against her shoulder, much sooner than expected. It’s frozen chill on her skin was overshadowed by the pain of her snapping collar bone. Even that agony would have to wait for its due attention. Without thinking, her hand slammed into the holographic locking mechanism below. It read her print as soon as her palm made contact, and the door to the room slid open.

Mary darted through the opening. Slightly relieved, she paused and turned to look at Adam one last time. She hesitated shutting the door, though she knew she should. Luckily for her, the tranformation was taking much longer than expected based off of other Shifters. Still, the odds of surviving no longer seemed to matter. All she could do was stare at the frighteningly beautiful sight before her and hope beyond all that she knew, that this was it. He would be the one. The one to endure. The one to survive. The one true guardian.

Mary hesitated closing the door. She could see Adam’s head tilted back, his face pointed toward the ceiling. His muscles started to seize, violently shaking the metal chair below him, causing it to clatter against the concrete floor. She’d seen many Shifters discover their prime, and watched the painful initial tranformation process. But, Adam claimed he had already shifted once before; Mary didn’t expect it to be so violent the second time around. Just like the day she found Adam, Her mind wandered back to her first session in Asphodel, and the advice that was given to her on that day. There are no gifts. Everything in Asphodel comes at a price. Shifters came to understand that more than most, and it seemed that Adam would understand it better than anyone.

When imagination becomes reality, and myth becomes flesh and blood, a guardian will rise. Mary repeated the phrase in her head, as she had thousands of times before. Her entire life led to this moment, and now she stood at the precipice of the most amazing discovery in all of Asphodel. A Wrathic coming to life before her eyes. They do exist.

Without warning, the metal door to the interrogation room slammed shut.

“Get the hell in here!” a voice boomed above her.

It was Cassius, who was watching Adam’s transformation from the control room positioned on the other side of a double-pained, half-mirrored wall. Mary snapped back to reality with a metallic bang as the door in front of her shuttered and bent outward. She ran down the corridor to her right. The control room was open, and her feet slid as she rounded the corner. Tony was sitting at the main controls, and Cassius stood behind him. They both stared at Adam in shock as Mary rushed into the room.

Mary immediately turned her attention to the thick window to see Adam still writhing in pain. She glanced over at the massive dent in the interrogation room’s door and the metal chair mangled in front of it on the floor. Mary turned back to Adam. His limbs were breaking and cracking out of place before realigning themselves into a completely different structure. His head retched forward as blood shot from his mouth and started dripping from his eyes and ears.

“You were telling the truth,” she whispered.

“You gonna,” Cassius started. He nodded at Mary’s collarbone. The break was visible through her tight-fitting top. With everything going on, she had completely forgotten about it. Mary grabbed a small red health orb from her belt and smashed it on top of her collarbone. The orb shattered and a viscous red liquid splashed over her shirt. It felt warm while it soaked into the shirt, then seeped into her skin. The collarbone realigned itself and the wound healed within a matter of seconds.

“This is unbelievable,” Tony said, staring at Mary with wide eyes. She couldn’t take her eyes off Adam. She slowly walked closer to the glass. Staring at the violent event that unfolded before them, Mary prayed to whoever would listen that Adam wouldn’t die. If he did, this character would be lost and there’d be no telling what animal form he’d get upon selecting the Shifter class again. She’d bet everything she had though that he wouldn’t be a Wrathic. Tony and Cassius watched as Mary approached the glass and placed her palm against it.

"Surviving would be unbelievable.” Cassius said.

Mary wasn’t paying attention, her head was swirling with Wrathic myth. Of course this was going to be violent and drawn out, she thought. Wrathics were said to be entirely different than other Shifters. The pain involved in the early transformations were amplified to an unquantifiable, indescribable level. Every Wrathic rumor that she found in her centuries of research ended with the hosts experiencing an incredibly bloody, and painful death. The physical and mental toll of the conversion was just too much. If it was to be the most powerful creature in the game, as Hidarian had intended, then it would certainly be the most difficult to develop and sustain.

“Mary!” Cassius shouted, seeing her drift into the wind.

Adam’s arms were transforming. The excruciating event started in his shoulders. The clavicle forced itself outward, away from his chest. The scapula followed, sliding to the very end of the clavicles, connected by new tendons; thin yet powerful. His skin molded and stretched until large, leathery wings appearedbelow his wiry new ‘arms’. Small fissures appear on Adam’s face, before his skin began to peel and fall to the ground. Mary pulled her hand back from the glass and moved next to Tony at the main control screen.

"Okay that’s enough. We have recorded confirmation. Hit him. Ten percent, five seconds.”

Tony hesitated. The electrical rods in the ceiling were used to subdue any person or creature that they had under interrogation. Five percent could kill a class one. Ten percent could kill a class five, depending on the host. Adam, was only a class three. He had told Mary that in the haze of memories from his first transformation, he swore it was a lightning bolt that took him down. Whether Hidarian planned for him to show up at the cave only to be incapacitated by a preprogrammed bolt was unseen, but it was the only information that had on what could possibly subdue him.

“Mary,” Cassius said, stepping up to justify Tony’s hesitation. “Don’t you think that’s a little much?”

Adam’s face had fully shed its skin. A newly formed, leathery, scaled head took its place. The large black eyes began to glow, swirling between bright red and orange. Long, razor sharp teeth filled his elongated mouth. The pain, anger, and frustration was removed. Adam was replaced by the black heart of the beast that consumed him. It dislocated its jaw, then rolled its head at the neck. The mouth opened wide as it rotated its head in a full circle. The teeth and fire glands under the tongue were strikingly apparent.

Mary put a hand on Tony’s shoulder and squeezed firmly to reveal the severity of the situation. “If he completes the transformation, we may not be able to be able to stop him. We’ll all start over with new characters. Our research will take a back seat as we spend decades leveling back up and the council won’t tolerate that. They’d replace us, if they could, and likely banish us. Hit. Him. Now.”

Tony paused. After a deep breath he hesitantly typed the commands into the white holographic touchscreen below and activated the defense system. Everyone turned their attention to the ceiling as a small portion of it disassembled into tiny squares and peeled back to reveal a round hole. A copper rod, twelve inches in diameter and two feet long, lowered from the ceiling fifteen feet above Adam. There was a brief mechanical whir before a blast of electricity coiled around the rod and shot at the creature who was stuck between humanity and beast.

It roared long and loud as the electricity struck between its eyes. The double-paned two-way security window separating them, though six inches thick, began to vibrate from the sheer volume of noise that the small, but powerful creature made. Its head snapped to the two-way glass, red eyes glaring through the mirror at Mary. Massive, robust legs now took the place of Adam’s, claws replaced his feet and as the creature rose, its intentions became clear. It meant to plow through the wall that separated them, killing anything that crossed its path.

“Jesus,” Tony exclaimed.

“Forty percent, ten seconds.” Mary said firmly.

The creature roared, then slammed a claw into the concrete floor causing it to crack in all directions.

“Do it!” she shouted at Tony. “Put him down!”

Tony jumped when Mary yelled as he was too preoccupied with gawking at Adam. He shook his head and furiously typed the commands into the console before slamming a finger down on the engage key. Within seconds, another three rods lowered from the ceiling. Electricity swirled and grew around the rods before firing one large bolt at the creature’s head. This time, it had an effect. It stumbled and growled, losing its footing as electricity surged through its body. Muscles shuddered and tweaked, but they also tensed, and the creature held its ground.

After the ten seconds depleted, the control room went quiet. The beast was still, standing on all fours, staring at the cracks in the concrete. It was unclear as to whether or not it was still conscious. After a few moments, its back expanding as it inhaled digital air. As it exhaled, the head slowly raised, the fire in its eyes intensified. The creature’s upper lip quivered as it slowly peeled above his onyx teeth.

Mary, Tony, and Cassius stared, frozen by shock and awe. Forty percent was enough to kill a Level 25 Shifter, whether they were in human or creature form. Adam had completed the transformation, and a fully-fledged Level 3 Wrathic stood in his place.

It look just as the myth’s described. Small, dense scales covered it’s entire body. A long, spiked tail led up to powerful muscular legs, with razor sharp claws jutting from its leathery, boney toes. The midsection was elongated and lean, leading up to a bulky heaving chest. In place of arms, the Wrathic had wide wings that started where it’s shoulders would be. The elbows of the wings had triple, claw like appendages that it used to prop itself up when standing on the ground. Following the powerful chest up, a thick neck almost as long as it’s abdomen led to the most frightening part of the creature. It’s head.

Elongated and menacing, the head was covered in pointed digits of varying size and length that swept back across its face, and gave the appearance of a demonic porcupine. It’s teeth were long and sharp, some falling into place perfectly between each other, while others jutted out to the side in a vicious display of the proposed pain they could inflict. All said and done, the high point of the creatures wings stood at ten feet off the ground, it measured thirty feet from tail to snout.

Mary’s excitement and disbelief was tabled by the terrifying display before them, a mere six inches of safety glass between them. Wrathic’s size was said to increase with their levels. Mary shuddered at the thought of a high level Wrathic that could very well end up standing some forty of fifty feet high.

The Wrathic swept it long tail around, then raised its front claw and shot it down onto the concrete. A thunderous wave radiated out as the floor separated in several locations. This time, one particularly massive crevice tore toward the control room. It crept up the wall and splintered the six inches of safety glass that served to protect them.

“Eighty percent!” Mary shouted.

Tony didn’t respond. Both he and Cassius were frozen in fear. The Wrathic took another powerful step forward and the resulting shock wave caused the glass to shatter and fall to the ground in a thousand pieces. While too much electricity could run the risk of killing him, Mary wasn’t convinced. If that was the case, he would’ve been dead already. Priorities quickly shifted from keeping him alive, to keeping themselves alive. The Wrathic was the key to their end goal, but if he killed them in the process, someone else would likely kill or capture him and that couldn’t happen. Mary shoved Tony out the control chair and slammed her fingers into the holographic keys in a fury. The Wrathic lowered, poising to lunge. Four more rods receded from the ceiling and whirred up.

The Wrathic leapt as the powerful bolt crashed between its shoulder blades, smashing it to the ground. Electricity poured from the ceiling, creating a surging blue and white cloud of power above the creature. After a few seconds, the lights in the control room started to flicker. The Wrathic held its ground; seizing, muscles tensed, determined to fight back.

Wide eyed, Mary turned her attention back to the console. He fingers raced across the holographic interface in a fluid fury while the electricity continued to berate the Wrathic’s thick skin.

“What are you doing?” Cassius pressed.

“We need to stop him,” Mary said calmly, her focus never wandering from the screen. The percentage raised from eighty to a hundred percent.

Cassius surged forward and violently wretched her wrist back. “That’ll take down the reactor for the whole facility! We need to get evacuate.”

Mary rotated, slipping out of his grip and drove her opposite fist into his temple. Cassius blacked out. His body went limp and due to the force of her hit, he slammed into the ground with a hard thud. Tony was quivering on the ground, frozen in fear. Cassius came to, and shook his head, before looking up at Mary incredulously.

She rushed back to the screen and shouted, “If he gets out of room he’ll tear through the facility! We’ll die! EVERYONE WILL DIE!”

Two more rods lowered from the ceiling and whirled up. With the glass gone, the storm of electricity caused Mary’s skin to tingle as she anxiously waited for the extra percentage to kick in. The lights flicked and died as the system drained what little power the facility had left, and the console went dark as the extra rods fired.

“I won’t let him be taken by someone else. I won’t let all of my work be destroyed, all the years of research wasted.” Mary muttered under her breath at no one in particular. She leaned forward in anticipation and clenched down on the edge of the control room’s window sill; broken glass digging into her palms. Ignored the pain as her blood streamed down the wall, the Wrathic snarled at Mary as it fought through the onslaught of electricity ravaging its body.

Cassius stared up at Mary as her obsessive nature in completing their quest took over. She continued to mutter angrily, the volume of her voice increasing with each word. “Dark Angel look over me and be a guiding light in the darkness. I will not be deterred by evil, I will not be consumed by the blackness that tries to overwhelm me.”

The Wrathic’s eyes locked with hers, and its sockets burst into flames. Straining through the pain, it slowly pried its mouth open to reveal the main fire glands. They quivered as the tongue danced out of the way, and the creature prepared to engulf the control room in searing torment and death.

Mary had started to shout at the Wrathic as it prepared to kill her, “I will not stand down when confronted by the beast! I will not allow my life to be relegated to ash! I am the master of my own destiny and NO ONE WILL STAND IN MY WAY!”

Flames started to lick the edge of its mouth before the Wrathic’s head quivered and limbs crumbled. The creature shuttered, held on for one more second, and then its body crashed to the ground. After another ten seconds of seizing, the entire body went limp.

The Facility’s defense system sparked near the base of the rods as a thunderous, metallic clang rang out in the room. Like the rest of the facility, the system was out of juice, and forcefully shut down. Both rooms were bathed in darkness.

There was silence.

“Emergency lights?” Tony asked quietly from the floor. Mary had almost forgotten he was there.

Based off of the direction of his voice, Cassius was still on the ground. “She fried the system. First the reactor went, then the emergency power kicked in, and she blew that too.”

They sat in the darkness, taking stock of everything that happened in the last ten minutes, and what they had just discovered. Adam turned Asphodel upside down. The world changed in an instant. It was all open to them, and Adam was the key.

After what seemed like hours, Mary finally said, “But we survived,” a faint flash of red flickered in the dark room. It was the Wrathic’s eye, twitching while he lay unconscious on the concrete “and so did he,” she said with a nod to its body.